Author Birthday – 22 October – Katherine Arden

Happy Birthday, Katherine Arden, born on 22 October 1987.

Katherine Arden Quotes

1. I didn’t start my first novel with the specific ambition of becoming an author. I had always loved reading, of course, and there were many writers I admired. But I had never connected my enjoyment of fiction to a possible career for myself. I didn’t study creative writing in school; it never occurred to me. When I began my first book, I had just finished college, and I fully expected to go on to grad school.
2. I had always been a huge reader, and I decided to try writing a book to entertain myself when I had no money and no car to go anywhere. I found that I really enjoyed the process of writing fiction, and decided that I wanted to finish my book project before heading off to grad school. I did finish it, and was shocked when when my tentative attempt to publish it succeeded.
3. I usually start writing without an outline to see how the book feels. I want to know if there’s a strong voice coming through, if the book seems to want to move, if the ideas deepen as I go along. Plenty of my book ideas actually die at this early writing stage, because I can feel that there’s not enough there and it won’t grow into a whole novel.
4. After about 10k or 20k I start sketching brief outlines as I go, not too detailed, just so I can keep track of my ideas as they come. Usually by halfway I write my last outline and then charge the rest of the way, because the book has good momentum by then.
5. Being a writer is a contradictory sort of job; not least because one must somehow combine the need for free-flowing creativity with such uncreative things as email, deadlines, contracts, word counts, marketability and on and on, a long list of ever-more-dismal nouns.
6. I sometimes wish I had a confounding writing habit, to astonish readers at signings, so that they don’t notice that I am tongue-tied and not witty. The closest I come is my insistence on drafting with a fountain pen (pilot custom 823) in emerald or amethyst ink that sparkles faintly (Jacques Herbin, a French brand) in a Clairefontaine notebook.
7. Every morning, when I sit down at my desk (having eaten breakfast, if you’re wondering) I crack a notebook labeled Ideas (the current one is teal) and I spend half an hour brainstorming. No idea is too weird for this notebook; coherence is not required, no one but me will ever look into any of my idea notebooks.
8. Ninety per cent of writing is work. Extremely hard work. Not inspiration, not compulsion, not the power of the soul, or whatever. It’s work.
9. There is nothing better [then boredom] for a creative person. It must be sought, cherished. But try. Because when the outside stimuli stop, your mind – that springtide of everything you’ve read, and everyone you’ve met, all your thoughts, hopes, dreams, ambitions, the endless ocean of yourself – rushes in to fill the gap. That is where your stories are.
10. I said writing is ninety per cent work, and it is. But the rest of it is the idea, the passion, the hope, the dream. It’s important to nurture it. And if you do, life just might surprise you.

Source for quotes 1-4: Goldsboro Books and 5-7: Nerdy Book Club and 8-10: The Novelry

Katherine Arden is an award-winning American novelist. She is known for her Winternight trilogy of fantasy novels, set in medieval Russia. They have been nominated for Hugo and Locus Awards. She is also the author of the Small Spaces series of horror novels for middle grade children. Her latest book is The Unicorn Hunters, a historical fantasy novel for adults. Her writing is influenced, among others, by J.R.R Tolkien, Mary Renault, Diana Gabaldon, and Robin McKinley. Her all-time favourite book is The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett. Follow Katherine on Instagram.

Source for photograph: Author’s Press Kit

by Amanda Patterson
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